In December 2010, I told you the story of one very lucky Red-tailed Hawk. Stories of animals found injured or ill in the wild do not often have happy endings. This one did and since I needed to be reminded today that sometimes such stories do end happily, I thought I would repeat it for you for this Throwback Thursday.
Red-tailed Hawks have a claim on our imagination. They are so majestic in appearance, so cool, so...Zen. Some of them have become quite famous. Pale Male, the 5th Avenue, New York City bird, for example, has his own website and Twitter account and a host of followers and fans, as the authorities found to their chagrin when they tried to move him and his mate a few years ago. The birds' nest on the side of an apartment building at a posh address on 5th Avenue was causing a mess so the owners of the building had it taken down. That resulted in a series of noisy protests and an international outcry. Those quirky New Yorkers, it seems, preferred the mess and their birds. In the end, they got them back. The Red-tails and their fans were triumphant.
Another Red-tailed Hawk found recently near Monroe, New York does not have Pale Male's notoriety or fan base. She doesn't even have a name, although if someone wanted to give her an appropriate one it might be "Lucky".
Just before Thanksgiving, this bird was found by a motorist on Route 17M near Monroe. She was sitting on a dead rabbit on the white line of the road. The motorist, fearing that she would be hit by a car, stopped to try to move her off the road. When he approached and the bird did not move and would not let go of the rabbit even when he tried to move her, he realized that something was wrong. She appeared old and possibly injured. It may be that this was her first meal in a while. She was not going to give it up.
The motorist managed to get the bird into the back of his van where she perched on a mop handle. He took her to Sterling Forest State Park but when a worker tried to transport her in a banker's box, she escaped. She was picked up again the next day on Route 17M and taken to Bear Mountain Zoo and then to a wild-bird rehabilitator in Garrison, New York. When she was finally able to be examined, it was discovered that she had a hairline wing fracture. But the real story was in that aluminum ring she carried around her leg.
You see, this bird had been banded when she was 6 or 7 months old - back in 1983! She was 27 years and about 9 months old when she was recovered, which makes her the oldest Red-tailed Hawk ever found in the wild.
Red-tailed Hawks live lives filled with danger. More than 60 percent do not survive their first year. The ones that do will do well to live half as long as the Monroe bird. She has lived long and prospered for more than 27 years on her own and when at last she needed help, she was fortunate enough to be found by a Good Samaritan who did not just swerve past her on the road with eyes trained on his route ahead. He actually stopped and took the time to investigate and to transport her to where she could get the help she needed.
Today, this lucky bird is at The Raptor Trust in northern New Jersey and she is on the mend. If she fully recovers and is able to fly, she will be released to the wild again in the spring, to soar free once more.
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The Good Samaritan and the Red-tailed Hawk
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| The magnificent Red-tailed Hawk. |
Red-tailed Hawks have a claim on our imagination. They are so majestic in appearance, so cool, so...Zen. Some of them have become quite famous. Pale Male, the 5th Avenue, New York City bird, for example, has his own website and Twitter account and a host of followers and fans, as the authorities found to their chagrin when they tried to move him and his mate a few years ago. The birds' nest on the side of an apartment building at a posh address on 5th Avenue was causing a mess so the owners of the building had it taken down. That resulted in a series of noisy protests and an international outcry. Those quirky New Yorkers, it seems, preferred the mess and their birds. In the end, they got them back. The Red-tails and their fans were triumphant.
Another Red-tailed Hawk found recently near Monroe, New York does not have Pale Male's notoriety or fan base. She doesn't even have a name, although if someone wanted to give her an appropriate one it might be "Lucky".
Just before Thanksgiving, this bird was found by a motorist on Route 17M near Monroe. She was sitting on a dead rabbit on the white line of the road. The motorist, fearing that she would be hit by a car, stopped to try to move her off the road. When he approached and the bird did not move and would not let go of the rabbit even when he tried to move her, he realized that something was wrong. She appeared old and possibly injured. It may be that this was her first meal in a while. She was not going to give it up.
The motorist managed to get the bird into the back of his van where she perched on a mop handle. He took her to Sterling Forest State Park but when a worker tried to transport her in a banker's box, she escaped. She was picked up again the next day on Route 17M and taken to Bear Mountain Zoo and then to a wild-bird rehabilitator in Garrison, New York. When she was finally able to be examined, it was discovered that she had a hairline wing fracture. But the real story was in that aluminum ring she carried around her leg.
You see, this bird had been banded when she was 6 or 7 months old - back in 1983! She was 27 years and about 9 months old when she was recovered, which makes her the oldest Red-tailed Hawk ever found in the wild.
Red-tailed Hawks live lives filled with danger. More than 60 percent do not survive their first year. The ones that do will do well to live half as long as the Monroe bird. She has lived long and prospered for more than 27 years on her own and when at last she needed help, she was fortunate enough to be found by a Good Samaritan who did not just swerve past her on the road with eyes trained on his route ahead. He actually stopped and took the time to investigate and to transport her to where she could get the help she needed.
Today, this lucky bird is at The Raptor Trust in northern New Jersey and she is on the mend. If she fully recovers and is able to fly, she will be released to the wild again in the spring, to soar free once more.
Wow, this is an amazing story...And fitting for such a majestic creature!
ReplyDeleteIt is an amazing story and a reminder of the resilience of life.
DeleteWhile I read your story I kept seeing it as a picture book.
ReplyDeleteIt would make a good picture book, wouldn't it?
DeleteWhat a wonderful story! I'm so glad he stopped and didn't just drive by like so many would.
ReplyDeleteOne year, we had a red-tailed hawk visit our building in downtown Houston and perch on the parapets outside our lunch room window. So beautiful, and so close!
They are truly magnificent birds and have a strong claim on our imagination and sentimentality as the history of Pale Male and his mates in New York surely attests.
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